Casting same spell as superior original
Familiar territory in redundant reboot
As guilty pleasures go, 1996’s The Craft is up there for me.
Quite why it took 24 years for a sequel to arrive on screens is anyone’s guess – although after watching it you’ll probably be left wishing they hadn’t bothered.
The Craft: Legacy isn’t so much a follow-up as a reboot, with writerdirector Zoe Lister-jones – in only her second full-length feature film – even recreating scenes and moments from the original.
The general plot is basically the same as high school students Lily (Cailee Spaeny), Lourdes (Zoey Luna), Frankie (Gideon Adlon) and Tabby (Lovie Simone) get together to form a coven of witches.
Unfortunately, none of the four can hold a candle to the first movie’s leading quartet – and it’s hard to see any of them going on to enjoy the success of Neve Campbell or Robin Tunney.
David Duchovny (Adam) and Michelle Monaghan (Helen) are perfectly fine but you can tell this was a paycheck flick for both.
Where Legacy does improve on its predecessor, inevitably given the advances in digital effects, is with its witchcraft.
Lister-jones stops time and throws out some flames as the wannabe witches display budding X-men-like powers.
The fresh additions to the story are welcome too and it’s a shame Listerjones didn’t take a completely new approach instead of playing her greatest hits from the first flick mix tape.
While better than the latest Black Christmas remake, the unimaginative, abruptly concluded The Craft: Legacy isn’t worthy of its name.
Perhaps the saddest thing about the ill-advised follow-up, though, is the appearance of one of the original’s characters; redundant and too late in the day, all it does is remind you of better times.
●What are your thoughts on The Craft: Legacy? Were you a fan of the original movie?
Pop me an email at ian.bunting@ reachplc.com and I will pass on your comments – and any movie or TV show recommendations you have – to your fellow readers.
Ben Falconer contacted us to say: “The movie Greenland on Amazon Prime is very good.
“I wasn’t expecting much from it, but there are lots of emotional moments in it to go with the expected impressive special effects.”